Never Meant To
by Mistheart150
Summary: Danny has been avoiding Maddie lately, but she can't seem to figure out why. When the new invention brings some new information to light, how will she react? Rated for character death.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, I have no idea where this came from. This is probably the grimmest thing I've ever written. Both of them are rather OOC, but the theme makes that understandable.**

Maddie looked up from the invention she was tinkering with at Danny, who was sitting across the table from her. He was picking at his food, occasionally looking up, but then quickly dropping them when he saw her looking at him. The look in them was something she had never really seen before: fear. No, not just that, there was also anger and a bit of resentment there too. The part that hurt and scared her the most was that it was directed at her.

It had all started about a week ago. She had come home with a ghost she had captured. Not just any ghost however, oh no. It was the coup de gras of her ghost hunting career- the infamous (or famous, depending on who you talked to) ghost boy, Danny Phantom. When had had gotten home, it was late, so she decided not to wake anybody up, including her husband Jack, who would probably kill the ghost (aka: tearing him apart molecule by molecule) before they could study it.

So she had done everything herself. Phantom had made multiple attempts to convince her to let him go, but Maddie paid no attention. The reason she had knocked him out during the vivisection was not so he couldn't feel the surgery (ghosts couldn't feel pain after all), but so he wouldn't make a racket as she did the gristly procedure. She had gone upstairs for some coffee, and when she came back, he was gone.

After that, Danny had been sick for a few days, and had been doing his best to avoid her, as was Jazz. It couldn't be coincidence that she had 'studied' Phantom (if it could be called that) and her son becoming more distant to her, could it?.

She saw the pain in the false smiles he gave her, heard the fear in his voice even though he tried to cover it with a false cheerfulness. She could almost feel the tension in the air whenever they were in the same room together.

Maddie tried to get him to talk, she really did, but no matter what she asked, he would always give the same answer. "I'm fine Mom." Mother's intuition and common sense told her nothing was in fact 'fine'.

She lifted the device she was working on (and noted Danny's flinch at the action) and slid it into her pocket, then stuck an earbud into one of her ears so she could hear the thing without alerting Danny.

You see, ever since the Ghost Gabber had been picking up on Danny's voice, Maddie began wondering if there were more uses for the little machine. This thing she had made was the fruit of those thoughts. Instead of translating the noises a ghost made, it translated the true meaning behind what the speaker was saying.

_(From this point on, bold is the modified Ghost Gabber)_

"Danny," Maddie said softly. "Is something wrong? You're awfully quiet."

The boy swallowed nervously. "N-no, everything is alright."

**"Nothing is right anymore," **Maddie heard in her ear. Good, it worked, but instead of the normal, bossy-sounding female voice the Ghost Gabber had, it was Danny's voice, though it was 't very good because it echoed. Why did it sound so familiar?

"Are you sure? Did you get in a fight with your friends?" she pressed.

Danny stared wt his plate. "It's not anything important," he said quietly.

**"It's the worst thing that has happened to me."**

Maddie had to stifle a gasp. The worst thing? Had he been attacked by one of those perverts you hear about so often in the news and- She couldn't finish the thought.

"What about bullies? I know you've had troubles with them in the past."

"Nothing is wrong." Danny' voice rose a bit.

**"It's a lot more personal than simple bullies."**

Maddie could tell that Danny was getting upset , but she had to know what was wrong with her little boy. "Were you...attacked?"

"What? Of course not! I would have told you it had happened." Danny's eyes were wide with the horror of that thought.

**"It wasn't a crazed-up sicko who did this to me Maddie. I can't bear to tell you the truth, as you'd probably kill me."**

The aforementioned woman paled. She wasn't even Mom to Danny anymore, she was Maddie. And why would she kill him. "Are you telling the truth?" she said sternly.

"Yes, of course I am," Danny said, sounding shocked.

**"No, I can't remember the last time I told you the truth."**

"Danny...was it something...I did?"

He paled and looked away. "Why would you think that?"

**"So you finally figured it out. Do you want me to tell you what you did?"**

She did, but at the same time, she didn't.

"Danny, what did I do?"

"Nothing." His voice was steady, hiding his emotions.

**"You tortured me! If it wasn't for my friends and Jazz, I probably wouldn't be here!" **The voice entering her ear was practically screaming, taking her aback.

Maddie had to fight back tears. "Danny when did I hurt you?"

"You never did anything to hurt me." Danny was beginning to lose his composure, as his voice was shaking.

**"When did you think? You must have figured it out by now."**

No, no, it couldn't be, and yet it was the only thing that made sense.

"Danny...where were you on Saturday night?"

"In my room asleep, where else would I be?" Danny had started growing paler with each question asked.

**"In the lab, being cut open by my own mother!"**

The red-headed woman's breathing hitched as she tried and failed to hold back a sob.

"Danny," she began, tears dripping down her face. "Are you Phantom?"

Danny grew chalk white and he made a strangled noise.

Still the device translated this as one word. **"Yes."**

In one swift movement, Maddie had stood and thrown the cursed machine at the wall. "It-it can't be," she muttered. She then turned and instructed Danny to stand, him no doubt thinking that she was going to take him to the lab. He did so, his eyes flicking between her and the shattered remains of her invention.

"Now Danny, take of your shirt." The tears had stopped, and she promised herself that she wouldn't cry again unless it was true. He began to protest, but she snapped her fingers. "_Now_." He turned around and did so.

She gasped at what she saw. His back was littered with scars, but what of his front?

"Danny, turn around."

He did, slowly revolving to face her. What she saw made her sick. His chest and torso were as scar littered as his back. In the middle of all of this was an angry red scar that looked much fresher than all the others.

"Oh Danny! I-I'm so s-sorry. I had no idea. If I had, I wouldn't have-"

"Save it," Danny snarled. "You only feel sorry because I'm your son. If you really were sorry, you would've felt remorse even I wasn't. What if it was Skulker or Box Ghost? You wouldn't have felt sorry for them." With this he put his shirt back on and left the kitchen. He stopped at the door way to add one more blow. "I don't even know if I should call you mom anymore." Then he left, leaving Maddie to wallow in self-hatred.

She collapsed against the counter. How, how could this be? Her own son! She almost killed her own son! Some mother she was. The tears were streaming down her face now, and great sobs escaped her. Now he had rejected her, not willing to call her mom anymore.

Her eyes lighted on the knife holder (A/N: what is that called?) and she removed one. With one swift movement she plunged it into her chest. The only pain she felt as she feel to the floor was the pain of losing her son, which was released as one scream of heart break and pain. It was the last noise she made.

The remains of the thing that indirectly drove her to this sparked to life one last time, translating the scream.

**"I never meant to hurt you!"** cried Maddie's voice from the dead machine.

**Okay, I swear I never meant for that to happen. Maddie was only supposed to be really depressed. On the plus side, sort of, was that I managed to write this at all.**

**I got a review saying this was funny from a guest. Pray tell, just what is so funny about this?**


	2. After

**Hm, so epilogue-type thing. Just kind of a what happened after sort-of thing.**

Danny stared at the gravestone that had his mother's name on it.

**Maddie A. Fenton**

**1972-2009**

**Loving mother and ghost hunter**

Danny hadn't shed a single tear after her suicide. Heck, he didn't feel sad at all. Yeah, he knew he should be, but he couldn't bring himself to. He mostly felt relief, as the one who had brought on both the emotional and physical scars that he would probably always carry with him. Now if he found out she had become a ghost however, _then_ he'd start feeling bad.

Jazz had cried, though not as hard as she might have if this had happened before that night. Same with his friends, they hadn't seen it, so it was harder for them to let her go. Danny didn't blame them.

His dad was the worst though. Danny figured he'd have to begin seeing a psychologist, even if it was his sister, but she had said she wouldn't do it when he had brought it up.

He felt slightly guilty, knowing that it was that last thing he'd said that had pushed Maddie over that edge, though not enough for him to loose any sleep over it. Sighing, he turned and went to the back of the crowd.

Feeling a hand on his shoulder, he turned and looked at the last person he wanted to see. Even seeing his mother's ghost would have made him feel better than this man.

"What do you want Vlad? Here to cry over your dead love's grave? 'Cause if you are, it's that way," Danny bit out.

"I simply wanted to give my condolences to you, dear boy," Vlad told him softly.

"Don't want 'em, don't need 'em," Danny grunted.

Vlad looked shocked. "Why, I thought you loved your mother."

Danny snorted and looked away. "I did, right up until she sliced me open. I wasn't awake for that, but I can imagine what it was like based on how I was after it was done."

Vlad stared. His love, his Maddie, had dissected her own son? She would never-

Danny's voice cut through his thoughts. "'Course she didn't know it was me, but still..." He trailed off.

"Oh, I see," Vlad said, his mind shutting down as he imagined what Danny had told him.

Danny hurried away from the man, heading for the trees at the edge of the cemetery. Before he could reach them however, another person intercepted him. At least he liked this one.

"Danny, where are you going? This is your mother's funeral your at," Sam scolded.

Danny just looked at her dully. "So?"

Sam rolled her eyes. "I know you aren't going to forgiver her, and could care less about whether she lived or died, but you could pretend you did."

"Nah, even that seems to good for her." And with that Danny turned intangible and walked through Sam. When he reached the trees, he transformed. Turning to look at Sam again, he said, "Besides, I hate funerals anyway." And he flew off leaving Sam standing there shaking her head in exasperation.


End file.
